San Diego 
A City Heights man accused of fatally shooting his pregnant former girlfriend after delivering roses to her office in Mission Valley last year pleaded guilty Friday to murder charges.

The plea allows Roger Jerone McDowell, 35, to avoid facing the death penalty at trial. Instead he and attorneys in the case agreed to a prison sentence of 75 years to life.

San Diego Superior Court Judge John S. Einhorn accepted the guilty pleas – to two counts of murder and an allegation that McDowell used a gun in the attack – and scheduled a sentencing hearing for March.

McDowell was charged in the deaths of Dawnna Denize Wright, 31, and her unborn child on June 12, 2007.

According to testimony at a previous hearing, witnesses saw a man carrying a bouquet of roses enter an office building on Camino del Rio South in Mission Valley just before 2 p.m. The man was identified later as McDowell.

A witness told police she heard Wright, who worked as an office manager, refuse to accept the flowers. The witness then heard gunshots.

Wright, who was 12 weeks pregnant with a baby girl, was shot six times, according to the testimony. McDowell had been identified as the baby's father.

McDowell called 911 the day of the shooting and confessed to killing Wright. He was arrested at his home.